(Online Dating Industry Journal) The legislative push for background checks on online dating services is gaining strength in Illinois. Last Wednesday a House committee unanimously approved a measure in Illinois to require online dating services that don’t conduct background checks to post this notice on their Web sites: “No background check of felony or sex offense convictions is done on members who use this service. Please take appropriate safety measures to increase awareness of possible risks associated with dating.” An article from the Rockford Register star indicates that the full House could vote on this as early as next week.
The bill was sponsored by Democratic Marion County Rep. John Bradley. From the Rockford Register article:
Rep. John Bradley, a Marion Democrat sponsoring the bill, told the committee he is trying to protect Illinoisans who go looking for love online.
“I don’t have anything against online dating,” Bradley said. “I think a lot of people enjoy it. They derive a lot of good (from) it. Let’s make something that’s good even better.”
Bradley said online dating services may be national in scope, but they would need to modify their formats to comply with his proposed Illinois law.
“Obviously, the only jurisdiction we have is within the state,” Bradley said. “But since the state of Illinois makes up a substantial portion of the public, obviously it would have effects.”
If passed, the legislation would only apply to online dating services that charge a fee and have at least 1,000 members. Online Dating Magazine has posted the full details of the Illinois bill.
Kim's Comments:
As I have stated before, depending on background checks may actually backfire for some online daters because it can give people a false sense of security. Just because a man or woman passes a background check doesn't mean that you have a green light to give them your home number and meet at their house for the first date. Also, what sites that provide background checks do not readily advertise is that these checks do not apply to every state and not in the same way in each state. If an online dater thinks that a site with background checks is completely free of frauds and sex offenders, they may be frighteningly mistaken.
If this bill is passed in Illinois, it would affect how major dating sites have to present their information as a whole, as, obviously, the Internet is not state-specific. I personally think that if legislators were genuinely interested in the safety of online daters in their state, they should work towards educating the locals about the risks and benefits of not only online dating, but dating in general. States would better spend their time and money with a dating safety program in their singles communities, rather than force online dating services to put a disclaimer on their front page.
Also, if Illinois is going through all the time and effort for this background check initiative, why limit it to only online dating services that charge a fee and have at least 1,000 members? This gives the impression that these laws are directly attacking major online dating sites when, in fact, some of the smaller dating sites are the worst offenders of all, with a larger amount of frauds, scams, and liars. This clause makes absolutely no sense to me and the support reasoning behind the bill (wanting to "protect Illinoisans who go looking for love online") seems almost hypocritical if smaller sites are exempt. I'd be very interested to hear other's opinions on this matter.
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